2024-08-12 The Value of Devaluation

What I Did

Well, I’ve updated my toolbox to conform to my present set of essays. I’ve also edited through half of my portfolio site here and the AdequateLife essays.

What I Learned

On the mental level, our lives are an incessant dopamine flow. We engage in activities that we interpret as having significance, the world responds to it, we reconfigure, and try again.

If we interpret Lewis’ Tao to be true (i.e., non-negotiable universals and values that exist within everything), the post-modern mindset of the futility of achieving is an utterly dumb perspective: it strips away all meaning simply because we can’t prove anything to the point of no longer requiring trust.

By contrast to our dopamine system, the values themselves are utterly immovable, while we are the moving parts that flit across values we deem as “our thoughts” with the fortitude and control of a drunken and indecisive bee.

In short, to bring it down from the highfalutin’ language, there’s not much value in being “right” or obsessing about getting things done “in the proper way”. There is simply “get it done” and “it didn’t get done”.

Therefore, besides being impossible, perfection is over-rated. Effectiveness is far more important.

And, just like running Windows 11 on 8 GB of RAM, there’s a lot to be said about not focusing on things at times, or minimalism if you prefer.

So, it’s sometimes better to cool off and wait for the universe to point you toward the next place. It’s also better to only push yourself to the degree you particularly enjoy the work. And, while we’re at it, it’s a good idea to stop and snort the roses (or whatever the kids these days are doing).

What I’m Doing Now

WHAT I MUST DO:

• Working in an insurance office right now.
• Preparing to move to Texas in an RV.
• Figuring out life with a stunningly beautiful, alexithymic, artistically gifted woman at the maximum threshold of the Crazy/Hot Matrix
• Slowly succumbing to the standard mental decline caused by maintaining two schoolchildren before they’re old enough to vote.

MY HOBBY:

Marching through my Grandiose Essay-Writing Mission, loosely guided by a Johnny.Decimal-like system:

• It consists of 14,449 files, each one containing between 1 and 10 elements.
• As I go, each condensation or output will make fewer files, but each re-categorization will likely make more files.
• The number is moderately arbitrary relative to results, thereby avoiding the risk of Goodhart’s Law while also implying I’ve made some sort of progress.

The project will eventually send everything to 3 possible places:

1. My essays will be updated, most notably NotaGenius and Trendless Tech.
2. My toolbox, if it’s potentially useful.
3. The primitives and templates for future projects.

The flow of work had represented itself through a unique semi-ordered flow of “phases”, but I’ve dialed that back now and giving myself some slack to focus on one phase at a time: